BRAJ IN BRIEF

An introduction to literary Braj Bh!"!

RUPERT SNELL
For readers who know Modern Standard Hindi or MSH, the grammar of Braj Bhasha
presents no great problems, and the great poetic wealth of this language lies close at
hand. Sometimes Braj and MSH coincide completely: in one Braj poem, for example, the
16th-century poet S!rd"s has Krishna say endearingly " H " ", while a century
later, Ban"ras#d"s has a cunning sannyasi advertise his wares with the enticing words
@+ H z H U. Elsewhere, it is true, wide differences between Braj and MSH do emerge,
but these are less often in syntax (the relationship between words) than in morphology
(the form of the words themselves). The purpose of this introduction to Braj grammar
which varies from poet to poet is to help readers to build on their existing knowledge of
MSH to achieve a confident understanding of original Braj texts.
Look for a moment at this (rather contrived) sentence in MSH prose:
H lH " U {U + "l" H z H ^
And now compare it with this possible rendering in Braj prose in a style that reflects the
language to be encountered in this introduction:
Hl H " " U + "l"- Hlz z H zl
There are ten differences in the eleven words, leaving only the possessive + identical in
both versions:
!"# has the Braj masculine singular ending in -au, a word-ending which happens to be
very rare in MSH and hence stands out as a characteristic of the Braj masculine
singular paradigm. It is of course the equivalent of MSH +.
$%& is the vernacular derivative (or tadbhava, defined below) of Sanskritic lH; MSH
nearly always prefers the latter tatsama form, while Braj is happy with either.
'()*+ (for ") shows a vowel lightening in an unstressed syllable; that is to say,
spelling conventions may follow pronunciation rather than etymology. Braj poets,
working in tightly defined metrical frameworks, are glad to have such choices.
,* this Braj oblique pronoun looks very different from its MSH equivalent U.
)"-. $ a simplification of the retroflex /%/ (MSH {U) is commonplace in Braj.
'/+,0 shows how the Braj oblique plural is written with a nasal consonant (--,
sometimes -l- or -- ) rather than the nazalised vowel typical of MSH as in "l".
$*12 $ this Braj postposition is one of many equivalents to the MSH H (itself also
commonly used in Braj), all deriving from the Sanskrit locative H".
2-"% a common sound-change between and in a final syllable is seen in z < z.
3+& this participle is equivalent to MSH H.
2&# an auxiliary verb, parallel to MSH ^. It again shows the -au ending characteristic
of the masculine singular in Braj.
Despite these differences, the overall syntax of the sentence remains unchanged. That
being said, it is also true that the conventions of verse construction and poetic diction can
seem puzzling at first: poetic word order often differs from that of prose or speech, and
many helpful signpost words such as conjunctions and auxiliary verbs are creatively
omitted in the cause of word economy, or to yield the ambiguity on which poetry thrives.
It is therefore important that our first proper encounter with Braj should be with real
poetry rather than fabricated prose.
With this in mind we will take a stroll through the language as found in the poetry of
V&nd, a court poet who tutored Aurangzebs grandson Azim-us-Shan in the art of
composition three centuries ago, in 1704. In the company of our Mughal class-fellow we
will gain an overview of how the language works, and will also encounter some of the
tropes, techniques and ideas that distinguish this poetry from other kinds of language
use. The couplets quoted here are from a text entitled -l UU Seven Hundred Verses
on Polity; my source is Jan"rdan R"v Celer (ed.), V!nd granth"val#, Agra 1971.
A TOUR OF BRAJ GRAMMAR WITH THE POET VR!ND
Lets begin our tour by asking our guide how easy will it be to learn the essentials of Braj,
and to enjoy its poetry. Will we have to work hard? V&nds reply
H z U lH z, l- H lH - +lz
UU " ""l +"l z l-+ -lz (
By effort alone, everything comes; without effort it comes to no one:
With straight ngers, congealed ghee will not be extracted at all.
V&nd is quite right of course: achieving anything worthwhile does take some effort!
But read his couplet a couple of times and you will quickly pull at least some of its poetic
ghee from the pot.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
(click icon to hear this couplet)
To feel the rhythm of the poem, bear two things in mind. Firstly, every syllable should
be fully pronounced (including the short vowels at the ends of words: srama hi ta$ saba
milata hai). Secondly, a line in this doh" metre (defined below) has a brief rhythmic
pause soon after the halfway mark: in this poem it comes after z in the first line and
after ""l in the second; more about this anon. But now, here is the meaning of the poem
in MSH:
"H U z U + lH z, "H + l- l+U + [+] -z lH;
UU " U "H _ l+U z -z l-+
The major differences between Braj and MSH encountered here are explained below:
4$ This word for labour, effort reflects Sanskrit "H. Although Sanskritic loanwords
are common in Braj, their form is often simplified you could say sweetened or
domesticated by local vernacular pronunciation.
&5 The functions of MSH U are carried in Braj by two distinct words, and Ul; we will
see their different functions later. Dont be surprised to see spelling variations such
as / and Ul / U, as Braj orthography is not standardised; nasalization also comes
and goes according to scribal whim, and such variations usually have no
grammatical significance.
/$+& = MSH lH (an imperfective participle). The short final syllable - covers both
singular and plural (MSH lH / lH); the feminine equivalent would normally be
lHl, again with a short final vowel.
/$+6 This third-person verb, ending ai or e regardless of number, has two functions: it
is a present tense (often equivalent in sense to lH), and it can also be a
subjunctive (Hindi lH). So it is called subjunctive-present.
7*82 = MSH l+U, though the sense here may be closer to l+U +.
9:'("% = MSH ", ". As we have seen, a sound-change between and is quite
common in the last syllable of Braj words; another example follows in the
penultimate word of this couplet.
;<,# = MSH "H, congealed, set. There are two things to notice here. Firstly, as we have
already seen, the masculine singular ending in Braj is au rather than ". Then, by
contrasting ""l with MSH "H we find that the Braj participle has picked up a "
before the masculine ending. This is because the Braj verb stem is not "H as in
MSH, but "lH, ending with a short i; the stem jami- followed by the ending -au
yields jamiau, spelt ""l. Similarly, Braj +}l, U"l, "l, l"l, "l, ""l are
equivalent to MSH +z, U-, H, l", ", "". And the joker in the pack: Braj "l
is equivalent to MSH _. (Both "l and z derive from Sanskrit l, and are
ultimately cognate with the English verb be.)
BRAJ IN BRIEF
= = MSH . The phrase +"l j means in any way at all, MSH l+U z.
807"6 Put together what we noticed just now about the / sound-change and the ai
verb ending, and youll see that this is equivalent to MSH l-+.
0*12 Easily recognisable as MSH -z; in Braj, either syllable in the negative particle can
be either long or short, and either syllable can be nasalized or unnasalized
another gift to poets whose verses have to fit strict metrical formulae! In doh" 14
below we see yet another spelling -lz-.
THE DOH! FORM
The doh" metre used by V&nd in the N#ti satsa# is the most popular couplet metre in pre-
modern Hindi. Conveniently for us, these particular doh"s are independent poems: each
couplet can be regarded as a self-contained unit of meaning. Notice how a doh" couplet is
punctuated: the first line ends in a single da%&a, and the second with double da%&as, or
a pair of double da%&as bracketing a stanza number. There is an AA rhyme.
The doh" has a simple but rather precise metrical pattern, measured by m"tr"s
beats, comparable to the beats used in music. A short vowel ( or j) has one
m"tr", while a long vowel ( @ @ ) has two: theoretically, it takes twice as
long to pronounce as a short vowel. A short vowel before a conjunct consonant (e.g. the
first vowel in or ) counts as a long syllable: feel the difference in length, or
weight, between the opening syllables in the words and * respectively, and you
will see why. Western annotation marks short syllables as

, long as

. Thus would
be scanned

, while * would be scanned

. In Indian prosody, short syllables
are called light ( ), while long ones are called heavy ( " ).
A doh" line consists of rhythmic feet with the m"tr" composition 6+4+3, 6+4+1. The
comma represents a more substantial rhythmic break or pause, often marked by a comma
in modern editions: this pause is called caesura in English < Latin, and "l in Hindi <
Sanskrit. Now let us look at the first quarter-verse of our first doh":
6
/
4
/
3

/

/

H z U lH z
Notice two things about the rhythmic feet. (a) With certain restrictions too technical
to bother us now, they can be made up of any combination of long and short syllables that
yields the requisite number of m"tr"s: thus a 6-m"tr" foot could consist of three long
syllables, or six short, or any combination of the two in any sequence. (b) The feet do not
necessarily coincide with individual words or groups of words: thus the 4-m"tr" foot
BRAJ IN BRIEF
above consists of U lH- (

), with the - that completes the word lH falling into
the next foot, - z (



).
If all this metrical detail wearies you, ignore it and move on. I will at some point add
recordings of the couplets included here.
In gnomic genres of the kind found in V&nds N#ti Satsai, the first line postulates an
abstract thought, and the second confirms it with a concrete illustration: thus in doh" 1,
the first line talks in abstract terms about the necessity of effort, while the second gets
its fingers sticky with a specific image. Reciters of such poems often repeat the first line
before proceeding to the second. Knowing that much of the relish in such couplets comes
from the matching of concrete image to abstract concept, they voice the repeated first
line in a rising tone, implying Are you with me? Got that? before delivering the second
line, capping the rhyme of the first and rounding out the idea.
With V&nds continuing help, we will now work methodically through a sequence of
grammar points. My commentary will concentrate on the grammatical point under
review and wont explain the whole poem; dont worry if you dont understand every
detail of each couplet. The translations given here are as close as possible, forfeiting
poetic subtlety for the sake of clarity in the literal meaning.
___________________
GENERAL PRESENT
We start with present-tense verbs. Whereas the MSH present tense uses participles like
H, Braj has H, with a very different rhythmic balance, the /a/ vowel after kh being
fully sounded: dekhata. This participle may be followed by the auxiliary z, as in MSH; but
often it isnt, because space is at a premium in poetry, and short is beautiful! Remember
that the past-tense auxiliary zl is equivalent to MSH ^ (Braj "l z^l = MSH " ^).
V&nd shows us a present-tense auxiliary z below, in the second line:
U- "- +l " +j +l" -lz
H z lH " z, " + lz
Never be proud of wealth and youthfulness
it disappears in a trice, like a clouds shadow.
The second line begins H z lH " z (MSH H z lH " z) dissolves as you
watch, i.e. disappears before your very eyes. The word is MSH ; +j is MSH +;
and remember that +l is MSH +, reconfirming the masculine singular ending in -au. In
we see the / sound-change again (MSH having ). The Braj and MSH word "
like appears very frequently in the second line of a doh", where it introduces the terms
of the illustrative simile.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
Now V&nd gives us a new couplet guiding us towards feminine participles.
l l Ul UHl "l z + ""
l+ l z U z"
Wealth and wit [both] fall and rise note the motion of the Persian wheel:
the empty vessel lls; lled, it becomes empty [again].
Feminine participles may end in a short i vowel (l, Hl, l etc.), but the
scribes are not always consistent: the -i ending is so short in pronunciation as to be
virtually inaudible, and is often dropped from the orthography (allowing l to be
reduced to ); the result, of course, is indistinguishable from the masculine.
In this couplet, the feminine participles l l (fall, rise) are playfully set
alongside three feminine nouns not verbs! that also have this same ti ending: Ul
wealth, UHl intelligence, good attitude, wit, "l state, condition. Such playful usages
are typical of Braj poetic construction; while not necessarily meaning anything in a
literal or translatable sense, they bring an organic cohesion to a phrase, suggesting
parallels and connectivities between ideas.
In the couplet above, V&nd illustrates the concept of fluctuating fortunes with the
graphic image of the camel-powered Persian wheel (z), an irrigation device with a
continuous chain of connected buckets (l+, here resonating nicely with l) which are
filled and emptied as they turn in perpetual sequence. The hypnotically repeated chant of
all those ti endings imitates the endlessly clunking motion of the Persian wheel: life
goes round and round, buckets are filled and emptied, fortune comes and goes.
Braj has a wide range of words for to see or to look. One of them has the stem "-
which is here used as an imperative (a command) in the spelling "".
SUBJUNCTIVE-PRESENT
We saw an example of the subjunctive present in lH earlier. Think of it as a subjunctive
verb (like MSH lH, and lH, etc.), but with the extra capacity of being used as a
present tense. The third-person uses -ai and -e spellings rather indiscriminately.
Remember that nazalization is also a little erratic, and is not quite the consistent marker
of plurality that it is in MSH, which as you know distinguishes singular subjunctive
from plural .
In the subjunctive-present, verb stems such as - come, "- go, - find, attain
etc. often have the shortened third-person form ", "", " (instead of ", "", ").
Three examples of the subjunctive-present appear in the second line of the next
couplet: H kills, " gives life and " is produced:
BRAJ IN BRIEF
"l Uz z" +l +
lU H " UU " @+lz l
Though they be kindred, [peoples] natures are various:
poison kills, nectar revives, [though] theyre born in the same place.
"l is MSH "l although; Uz is a Sanskrit word (Uz + in sandhi) meaning born
of the same womb: sibling, kindred; is MSH . The couplet refers to poison and
nectar deriving from the selfsame ocean, whose churning produced poison and nectar
(among other things) in a narrative from the Pur"'as. In writing this couplet about
personality traits, V&nd may have been indicating some individuals at the Mughal court
that gave him patronage: many of his couplets suggest that they may have been inspired
by some particular event or personality, and its easy to imagine the verses being recited
to great acclaim in a courtly setting, reflecting its rivalries, jealousies and intrigues.
In this couplet, V&nd uses three kinds of vocabulary that feature widely in all varieties
of Hindi, and well pause here to look at these categories.
1. tatsama words: Sanskrit loanwords which are literally that-same, i.e. the same
(sama) as that (tat) i.e ones that appear in their original unchanged Sanskrit
forms. The examples here are (a) Uz sibling; (b) +l nature; and (c) UU
nectar.
2. semi-tatsama or ardha-tatsama words: Sanskrit loanwords that have been
slightly modified in their vernacular dress in effect they are still Sanskrit words,
but their pronunciation reflects a vernacular touch. Thus l poison has become
lU, "l although has become "l.
3. tadbhava words: words which are that-become, i.e. derived (bhava) from that
(tad), i.e. from Sanskrit origins, but which have been shaped and eroded by the
passage of time, undergoing various stages of transition and transformation.
Certain predictable patterns of sound change determine these developments, which
can be traced through Prakrit into the medieval and modern languages. Thus l
place comes from Sanskrit ^ even if isnt immediately obvious from the
vernacular spelling! The word l is common in Braj, less so in MSH (which has lost
many fine and expressive words from its earlier periods, while gaining new ones
through loans from various languages, including Sanskrit, Persian & Arabic,
Portuguese, and English). Another example is z in our earlier couplet: it comes
from Sanskrit _, itself related to l+, a tatsama word used in that same
couplet. V&nd may not have been aware of the connection, but the science of
philology confirms it. Notice how the aspiration in has survived as z in z,
whereas the consonantal " quality has been eroded away. Another example of the
BRAJ IN BRIEF
same process is in the verb +z- to say, which derives from the Sanskrit root +^
(also seen in tatsama +^ recitation, story).
Coming back to the verbs, you may wonder what the difference is between the two
present tenses weve seen: the + type and the + type. The answer is that theyre often
interchangeable, with little functional difference between them, though as weve seen, the
latter often suggest a subjunctive sense (like its MSH cousin, +). Keep an eye out for both
forms and try to get a sense of their modern MSH equivalents in each example.
SOUND-CHANGE OF + TO "
We have already seen several examples of a sound-change to , and later we will come
to further examples such as the nicely alliterative + for dark night. Note that this
sound-change is mostly restricted to the end of a word. Can you spot another example in
our next couplet below?
" UH " +l U llz +z l
" - "- "lU Vz- +l
[Only] he who understands a certain matter should voice opinions about it;
an astrologer understands not disease, [nor] a doctor the planets movement.
The sound-change lurks confusingly in , meaning not four but motion,
movement; its use is encouraged here by the rhyme requirement. The word for planet is
Vz, and Vz- +l means Vz + the motion of the planets. In this couplet, V&nd
says that if you dont know what youre talking about, keep quiet. The beautiful
construction of this couplet deserves close reading. V&nd stresses the opposition between
two radically kinds of knowledge medical and astrological by setting the relevant
phrases back-to-back: " - "- "lU has object before subject, Vz- +l has subject
before object. The two different specialists, "lU and , are thus made to be
neighbours in the word-order of the line. This back-to-back effect is called chiasmus, and
to get a similar effect in English translation we would have to recast the line like this:
disease is not understood by ASTROLOGER : DOCTOR [understands not] the planets movement
Notice finally how the single verb phrase - "- does duty for both the astrologer and
the doctor a sharing effect called zeugma. Through literary devices of this kind the
poet is able to pack a great deal of meaning and inference into a very small space, and
this art lies at the very heart of poetic composition.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
MASCULINE SINGULAR ENDINGS IN -AU
Weve seen several examples of the masculine au ending that equates to MSH " (e.g.
Braj +l = MSH +, Braj ""l = MSH ""), and no further explanation is needed. In the next
couplet V&nd shows us -au endings in -l (MSH -), and in the nouns "l
brightness and Ul (or Ul) darkness (MSH " and U respectively) :
U H -l - H +
+ "l Ul z
A person sees all, but sees not his own fault;
The lamp gives light, but below theres darkness.
In the very opposite of a zeugma, the poet here deliberately repeats the word H (H ...-
H ) to stress the contrast between seeing and not-seeing.
>*?* VERSUS >*@*
There is also a phonetics-and-script issue in the couplet above. Although most MSH-
speakers pronounce as very similar or identical to " (making rhyme with "), in
Braj tends to be pronounced H, and in fact spellings such as H were the norm in old
Hindi. Many Braj scribes used for both and H, yielding spellings such as "l (= "l,
MSH H) and "l (= "l, MSH H), and not using H at all. Thus in the couplet above, the
phrase - H may have been read as H - H and may have been written as -
, the repeated consonant stressing the irony of the failure to find a fault in oneself.
OBLIQUE PLURALS
In an earlier couplet we saw an oblique plural ending in the example Vz- (MSH Vz).
Other examples from elsewhere are: "- (MSH "), l-- (MSH l-) and +- (MSH
+). Can you spot another in this next couplet?
" U "- + - +l- "
" - " - lUz lH- + "
The service of kings is said to be as dangerous
as kissing a serpents mouth, or encountering a lion.
Its in "- (MSH "), one of no less than five words ending -- in this couplet. The
verse begins with " thus, and ends + ", in which " is MSH , here giving the sense
in the manner of, as. Interestingly, the serpent here is specifically female (" rather
than the more common ", ") deadlier than the male, perhaps, or is the longer
BRAJ IN BRIEF
word preferred metri causa, for metrical purposes? As is usual in Braj texts, the word
- reflects Sanskrit - mouth rather than Persian - body as in MSH and Urdu.
One particular oblique plural form needs special mention: {-, oblique plural of {l.
z UH {- + z { lz H
Uz "- z
One should stay close to the great: theres much benet in bonds.
Everyone knows that vines grow equally with the tree.
COMPOUND VERBS
Compound verbs are of course very common in MSH think of expressions such as lH
-, U - and H "-. The following couplet includes +l U+ (MSH + U+/U+) and U"
- U+" (MSH U - U+ ). See couplet 4 above for the reference to the ocean as father of the
moon.
+ - +l U+ llU + +
lU l + U" - U+" ++
Nobody can remove the adverse marks of fate;
The ocean is its father, yet the moon could not cleanse its stain.
In our next couplet, the verb lU" means fumes in anger, and the compound verb l
"" means escapes, survives (with an -i stem in l of course):
{ { Ul lU + U - lU"
+ - +H - l "" (
The great feel anger with the great: they dont rage against the small.
The wind breaks a hard tree: soft grass survives.
My translation might well have included conjunctions (rather than colons) in both
lines, giving the verse a slightly more explicit sense: great people fume at their peers but
not against their inferiors, just as hurricanes snap great trees but do not damage grass.
Braj poets often leave conjunctions such as but or and unstated, leaving the functions of
such words to be inferred by verse structure alone: either the first line of the couplet
contrasts with the second, or the first half-line within an individual line contrasts with
its second half-line. The creative omission of conjunctions, in literary terms an
asyndeton, is a powerful weapon in the poets rhetorical armoury: though small in
themselves, such effects contribute to the ambiguity or multivalency of meaning that lie
at the heart of poetry. The lexical choices made by the translator nearly always damage
BRAJ IN BRIEF
these effects, making the translated text a narrower and less subtly layered thing than
the original.
Part of a poets work is to achieve a sense of integration in the poem: to integrate sense
and sound. Though one hardly notices it without looking closely, the couplet weve just
read neatly sets two t nouns ( and -) in opposition to each other, matching them with
paired but opposite k adjectives (+, +H); but the switch in order from noun +
adjective to adjective + noun also cleverly suggests the very different fate of tree and
grass respectively. Further, the word order is contrived in such a way as to sit + and
alongside each other, with internal rhyme. Such carefully contrived manipulations of
phrasing are part and parcel of poetry of this kind perhaps of all poetry worthy of the
name.
A final point about compound verbs. In Braj, the two verbs in a compound often
become inverted: llH l"l (MSH lH l") might appear as l"l llH without any change
to the meaning. This is especially common in rhymes, as it supplies extra rhyme
possibilities for the grateful poet. Another such inversion appears in ..."l" (MSH ""
z) in the following couplet, which describes the burning pain (-) of a woman
suffering from the anguish of love in separation an affliction which reaches epidemic
proportions in Braj poetry generally:
lz - l" l"- "l"
" + U z " Uz + l" ((
The anguish of lovesickness ares fourfold with the lovers airy words
as the re of love/oil increases when sprinkled with water.
The couplet plays on two different meanings of as talk (from Sanskrit ) and as
wind, breeze (from Sanskrit ), a play feebly reflected by airy words in my
translation. The lovers words are a breeze that whips up the flame of the beloveds
feelings. Meanwhile Uz (Sanskrit z) is both love and highly combustible oil as used
in a lamp, for example. Throwing water onto an oil fire makes it flare up violently. A
third pun involves the word l"- fourfold, built on "- (Sanskrit ") whose numerous
meanings include thread, lamp-wick. So the poem is thick with puns and allusions. The
second line begins with an adverbial phrase, " + U through sprinkling with water,
using the -e form of a participle from Ul- to sprinkle, irrigate; but " + may also be
read as "+ burning, adding another flame to the fire of the poem.
Staying with fire but returning to the matter of inverted compound verbs, look for
such a verb in this next verse:
BRAJ IN BRIEF
U Uz"+ U +, + - l- Uz"
- "" " +l lz " (
All are helpers of the strong, nobody is a help to the weak:
wind rouses the re but douses the lamp.
The inversion comes in lz ", which is equivalent to MSH + ( z ). The
word U (saba + emphatic suffix -i) is equivalent to MSH U; and + is MSH + (a
suffixed or gives this emphasis).
As inverted compound verbs are so common, heres a further example:
-- " U lz" +l z z
" l-H U +lz (
The eyes reveal everything of the hearts love or lack of it,
Just as a spotless mirror reveals good and bad.
The compound verb " (MSH ) is inverted, whereas +lz (MSH +z z) is
in its natural or neutral order.
VERB STEMS
In MSH, the stem of the verb has the form ", , U-, + etc.; but the Braj verb stem
usually ends in i, yielding ", , Ul-, +l. In V&nds next couplet, l cries out
and -l -l breaks into a dance both exemplify this:
H- - + lH- + UH + -lz-
l -l -l H U- - (
The joy of meeting ones hearts beloved has no limit;
Hearing the clouds rumble, the peacock cries out and breaks into a dance.
For peacocks, the monsoon is the mating season, and is announced by the welcome
sound of thunder (- ); the peacocks celebrate at the prospect of uniting with their H--
-, hearts delight. The word + in the first line is an alternative spelling for
possessive +l (MSH +).
Verb stems ending -"i (like U, "") can also be written -"ya (U", """) with
identical meaning.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
"l- l + "" + Ul +z U"
"" z U z llz + U+ """ (
What can be done with someone who deliberately does foolish things?
Who can awaken someone who stays asleep even when awake?
The phrase + U+ """ is MSH +l- "" U+ / U+, with the two parts of the compound
verb (""" and U+ ) inverted as explained earlier. """ is the stem form of the verb (=MSH
"" from ""-) and is an alternative for the spelling "".
The -i ending of the verb stem may easily be reduced to an -a ending (identical to the
MSH form). In the following couplet, the rhyme-words l and U may look like nouns
but are in fact the absolutives of verbs meaning to consider and to spread, extend.
+" +l"@ lz _ l
+U - z U (
Act later, having rst considered your reach;
How would a dwarf get a high fruit by stretching his arms?
The repeated

rhythm in the final quarter of the couplet, - z U, subtly
suggests the repeated reaching-up of the unfortunate dwarf as he tries to reach the fruit
beyond his grasp.
ABSOLUTIVES
Absolutives give a having done, after doing sense. In MSH they feature one of two
options: a stem form as in ", +, , H, U-, extended form, as in "+ /"+, ++, + /
+, H+ / H+, U-+ / U-+. Braj has equivalent patterns, with the option that the stem
may have an -i ending, making ", +l, l, lH, Ul-. The following couplet neatly
exemplifies both: the stem l (MSH l{, l{+) and the extended ll+ (MSH l+):
- _ ll+ + l+" l
Ul" " Ul (
Hurry to do what is to be done after considering your capacity;
stretch out your legs according to the length of your quilt.
The correlative-relative construction ..." is equivalent to MSH ...l"- (such
constructions are introduced more fully below).
BRAJ IN BRIEF
INFINITIVES & VERBAL NOUNS
In MSH, the infinitive verb has a -n" ending (H-, +z-), which changes to -ne in the
oblique (as in H H, or +z + ). The equivalent infinitive in Braj ends simply -na,
which is invariable: H-, +z-.
+z- + l z lU+"
@+ - lU @+ - "" (
Theres great distinction in the way of saying things:
through one word anger increases, through one word it goes.
V&nd is in playful mood again when he seems to imply a (false) parallel between two
different forms: +z- is an infinitive verb of the kind just described, but - is a noun,
similar in form to the infinitive but of course otherwise quite unrelated. - means
word in MSH it appears in its tatsama form -, often meaning promise.
In addition to this -na form, Braj often uses a gerund or verbal noun with the ending
-ibau (or -ibo): "l going, Ul-l hearing. Like the -au ending of masculine nouns and
adjectives, this -au changes to -e in the oblique: " in going and so on. Leaving V&nd
to one side for a moment, lets hear from no less a person than Akbar, the Mughal
emperor himself. In a deeply touching poem, he laments the passing of three of his
favourite courtiers Pithal (Prithviraj), the famous singer Tansen, and especially his
beloved minister, the famous wit Birbal:
^ U H"lU " -U- U "
zU H "" U^ (
1
With Pithal went the soire; with Tansen, music;
Laughing, strolling, talking all went with Birbals company.
We heard earlier that serving kings is dangerous, which is perhaps why nobody dared
to kiss the serpent and remind Akbar that doh"s are supposed to rhyme! (Should the
rhyme-words be " / U" ? ) Nevertheless its a fine verse, with many subtleties. Akbar
favours Birbal above the others by associating him with three favourite (but now lost)
pastimes in comparison to the single ones given for Pithal and Tansen respectively, and
furthermore he groups these three activities in a discrete list that occupies a full quarter-
verse, thereby underlining their scope and comprehensiveness. Pithal and Tansen are
associated with specific artistic activities, whereas the laughing, strolling and talking
associated with Birbal are organic parts of everyday life, and hence even more prone to
being missed. The verb H- is particularly hard to translate: it covers pleasurable
BRAJ IN BRIEF
1
Sary!pras"d Agrav"l, Akbar# darb"r ke hind#-kavi. Lucknow, V.S. 2007 [AD 1950]), p. 89.
strolling and taking enjoyment, with a very laid-back sense of just hanging out or other
more actively sensual pleasures. The subtle switch from U with in the first line to U^
with, in company of in the second adds further to the sense of loss, suggesting an
animate connection between Birbal and the qualities associated with him: when he
departed this life, they went off in company with him, hand in hand. Birbal must have
been excellent company, as the famous Akbar-Birbal stories imply. A mere thirteen
words encapsulate all this meaning.
Given the Mughal context, the couplet has probably been transmitted through the
Persian script (perhaps even in Akbars own hand, as he was not entirely illiterate),
which would not distinguish zU H from the more conventional Nagari spellings
of zlU lH l, (or for that matter zlUl lHl ll) or the postposition U from the
more usual Braj spellings U / Ul / U / Ul (MSH U !). In the late medieval period, use of the
Persian script was not restricted to Persian and Urdu; but the significant part it has
played in the transmission of Braj texts tends to be overlooked today, with Hindi and
Urdu separated into discrete camps.
PERFECTIVE VERBS
In the perfective (the simple past, as in went, did etc.) Braj uses the so-called ergative
construction that is so taxing to novice learners of Hindi. In Braj poetry, the
postposition itself is often absent, but its structure lives on, with agreement between verb
and logical object following the usual rule, as in MSH H +z- U-. You will hardly
need reminding that this usage applies with transitive verbs only not with intransitives
like "- to go. The second line of our next couplet features intransitive "" (agreeing with
m.pl. H ) and " (agreeing with f.sg. U).
Hl l "" ll + +
zH lz- "" H " U
The intellect warps in misfortune, in king and pauper alike;
Gone after a golden deer, Rama lost Sita.
The poets use of the verb "- here is a little subversive: it seems to blames R"ma for
carelessly or even recklessly losing his wife. Notice also how the central positioning of
the subject (R"ma) allows this word to work with both clauses in the line; if you find this
interesting, compare the centrally-positioned verb " in Akbars doh" above. The last
quarter of the couplet is wonderfully concise: H " U is a truly laconic summary of
the R"m"ya'a narrative!
The masculine perfective usually has forms like "l, U"l (MSH H, U-): this is
formed from the stem as in lH and the ending -au, with the -i of the stem represented by
BRAJ IN BRIEF
the semi-vowel /y/ say dekhi-au and you will hear the /y/ appearing automatically in
your pronunciation.
-lz " "l U"l "U lH U
HU +l+ l - " l (
[Ive] never seen or heard of a means whereby inherent character is removed:
[one] adds countless drops of honey, yet venom doesnt forsake its venomousness.
The verb +- to do is irregular in Braj (and in MSH too, what with its l+" and +
participles and its +l"@ imperative etc.!). In Braj the usual perfective participle from
+l- is +l (i.e. karyau, which could theoretically be written +", though Braj scribes
dont often use the flying reph in participles). Alternative participles are +z, +zl, +-,
+-l and +-, and its this last form that we find in the final couplet of V&nds Satasa#,
tactfully fulsome in its praise of the poets imperial patron Azim-us-Shan:
l l "" Uz "HU-
UU" Ul- +l +- l U-H-
Most liberal, and delighting in the world, is Shah Azim-ush-Shan;
hearing the Satsa! he showed Vrind great honour.
Notice that the postposition +l (MSH +) is nasalized. Although this is not a consistent
feature, it does help distinguish this sense from the unnasalized possessive +l (MSH +).
FUTURE TENSE
Looking to the future, we find much more variety in Braj than in MSHs single set of
", " forms. Braj has predictable equivalents of these ("l, "l) but also
boasts a set of h forms yielding first-person lzl, third-person lz, etc. Our next
couplet has the third-person future form +lz, equivalent to MSH +" $
l z H + z - +lz +"
"l "l " +H "l "l z"
Dont practise extreme obstinacy! If obstinacy grows, nobody will speak [with you];
The more a blanket is soaked, the heavier it becomes.
The soaked blanket stands as a metaphor for human patience: it can absorb or
accommodate a certain amount of a failing such as obstinacy but only so much, and no
more. Notice how the interplay of retroflex and dental consonants in l z H...z...
brings musicality to the verse. The second line uses an effective if commonplace
parallelism, using the structure of the line to position relative ("l "l) and correlative
BRAJ IN BRIEF
("l "l) clauses in the two half-lines, separated by a comma-like caesura. We will return
to the matter of relative-correlatives later. Meanwhile, V&nds next couplet gives us a
third-person future in z will come:
+l- + j z + + "U
- " UU U HU
Even a difcult skill will come with repeated practice
as an acrobat performing on a rope learns it in a year or a six-month.
A word to note here is j, even or also, equivalent to MSH . And a word of warning
about the orthography of future-tense words such as z $ typesetters are so accustomed
to setting the MSH present-tense verb z as a separate word that they often mistakenly set
a Braj future verb like z as two words and print z ! Hmmm: V&nd should write a
doh" about it.
The doh" above gives further examples of V&nds skill in achieving phonetic cohesion.
The first line is sewn together with + alliteration, and the keyword in the second
line not only echoes + + in the first, but also anticipates and U in the phrasing
that follows.
Here is one more example of the future:
- z + U " +" "l
"U z + + - "
If an enterprise is done with deceipt, it wont work again,
as a pot made of wood cannot be lifted [to the re] a second time.
The verb z is the future of z-, equivalent to MSH z"; +" is an abbreviated form of
+l"@, a Braj passive, and it is to this form that we turn next.
PASSIVES
It is not only in the future tense that Braj has more variety than MSH: the passive also
has two distinctive forms. Firstly, it shares with MSH the formula of perfective participle
plus " (the so-called periphrastic passive), as in U"l " is heard (MSH U- " z). The
second type of passive ends -ie, i-iye, -iyai or -iyata, as in Ul-@ / Ul-", Ul-" , Ul-" is seen,
llH@ / llH", llH", llH" is written. Spellings vary! The MSH word lz@ / lz",
which of course means is wanted, is a unique survival of this old passive form in MSH. In
this next couplet, look out for a passive of the verb - to take off:
BRAJ IN BRIEF
"- U l- + - +
lz" z l" U"- UH" " z
Though its worthy, no one respects [a thing] out of context:
the necklace is removed from the breast when its sleeping-time.
The necklace (z) is valuable ("-), being a thing of quality ("-, "); it is also "- in
the sense that it has a thread ("-, ") running through it. Despite its high status or
value, it is taken off (passive l" = MSH " z) when it is not the right time
(U) for wearing jewellery, i.e. at bed-time (U"- UH").
The -ie /-iai ending of the passive is familiar to us as an "p imperative in MSH (Ul-@,
Ul@), and it can have this function in Braj too. In many contexts the passive and
imperative senses overlap, so that either could be used in translation. For example, in the
next couplet U" is translated serve (imperative mood), but could equally well be
translated as either is/are served or should be served (both passive):
- " l" llz- U" H" " "" Hlz
z l-U l l-+ -lz
Serve a king, guru, wife and sister from middle-distance in the world:
theres disaster from [being] very close; no result if you stay remote.
Notice how the little list of personnel in the first quarter-verse, - " l" llz-, is
given an internal cohesion by a shared quality of short vowels: this shared phonetic
quality suggests that all the members of the little group are united by a common feature.
THE SUFFIXES -A*"# AND -2*"
Like many poets in Sanskritic languages, V&nd is addicted to the punning potential of "-
(Sanskrit "), a word that is often hard to translate adequately, as we found just now. In
the following, "- appears within the word "-l, in which the -l suffix is equivalent to
MSH -. The resulting sense is having qualities, i.e. being well-made, but also
something with a string attached ("-", tatsama ""+):
"-l Ul z z - "- l- +
+ - " "-" z
He who has qualities gains wealth no one gains without qualities;
one could draw water from hell [itself] if one had a well-made / roped bucket.
At a pinch, the English expression well-made might just work for both meanings,
since a well-made bucket could be interpreted as a bucket made for a well, i.e. equipped
BRAJ IN BRIEF
with a rope; but English readers would not be as accustomed to such punning as their
Braj cousins, and would miss the point!
Notice again how a chiasmus juxtaposes z with z, the repeat straddling the
caesura: this deliberate phrasing marks a stark contrast between the two parallel
statements, gains / gains not.
Similar in use to -l is the suffix -z; this is seen in the formulaic MSH word z-z
about to be, i.e. promising, up-and-coming (as in z-z {+), but in Braj it is also
found with a wider range of verbs:
"-z U "" z-z ""
- + "" U l- "
That which is to go, goes; and that which is to be comes about:
Ravan lost Lanka; Vibhishan gained it and settled there.
R"ma gave the defeated R"va's kingdom of Lanka to R"va's brother Vibh#(a' (a
devout Vaishnava); both R"va's loss of Lanka and Vibh#(a's gaining of it were fated
events, which is the point of the poem. Note that the pious Vibh#(a' qualifies for an
honorific plural (in the perfective verb U). Remember that the odd-looking word hvai
is the stem form of the verb z- to be (equivalent to MSH z).
The -z suffix appears below attached to the stem H^l-- in H^l-z, a churner:
"z "- ll ll
H^l-z l" +l HH- l-+l
A wise man considers a matter deeply and grasps its principle;
abandoning the buttermilk, the churner extracts the butter.
As if reviewing earlier lessons, V&nd shows us several old friends here: -i stems in
ll, l" and l-+l; imperfective participles in "z (compare MSH Vz +- to grasp,
grab or grip) and ; a clearly nasalized +l; and both an inverted compound verb and a
/ sound-change in l-+l (MSH l-+ z).
LEXICAL CHOICES AND WORD DERIVATIONS
These short notes cannot go into the complexities of word derivation and etymology, but
its worth pointing out one or two important processes. Braj has access to the full range of
Sanskritic and vernacular vocabulary, and poets can choose between a wide array of
forms and spellings including tatsama and tadbhava forms and many points in between.
In the couplet -- " U (13) we saw the tadbhava word lz" for heart; but elsewhere
V&nd prefers ", the tatsama version of this same word:
BRAJ IN BRIEF
"+ " + llz - +H -
- - " ^ +"l j l+@ l - (
S/he whose heart is hard is impervious to soft words,
Just as Kamdevs arrows can in no way pierce stone.
(The relative-correlative "+...lz equates to MSH l"U+...U; the adverbial phrase
+"l j l+@ means however its done, no matter how one tries.) The middle syllable of the
Sanskrit word H- K"mdev, Cupid has been through a process of phonetic weakening,
first becoming a semi-vowel (H"-) in Prakrit, then further reduced in the Braj spelling -
(- in our example, the vowel nasality having been picked up from the nasal environment
of H and -). A similar process leads from - to - (word, speech), the rhyme-word of
line 1. Elsewhere, the word - house, building (which already has a semi-vowel as its
middle syllable) is spelt l- in Braj; and one can see this process at work in some Hindi-
speakers pronunciations of, for example, the English word government as "lH, in
which the English v and its adjacent vowels are simplified to au. Only a person whose
heart is hard can be impervious to the fascination of these processes, which can be
scientifically tracked and documented in such a way as to be able to predict how a sound
will change over time; this is the academic science of philology. See the note on
dictionaries below (especially Turner).
The syntax of V&nds heart-of-stone doh" does not quite coincide with its metrical
construction in the first line: the caesura supplies a rhythmic break after lz (MSH U),
but in terms of syntax lz belongs with the second half of the line, as part of the phrase
lz " - +H -. Notice also how the position of at the beginning of the second
quarter-verse gives it emphasis the soft words striking at the heart of stone, but to
no avail. Such features are sometimes exploited very artfully by poets intent on
particular meanings.
The couplet below about foolishness contains a couple of false friends, i.e words
that have an apparent but deceptive similarity to others: +z means what? (MSH +") and
has nothing to do with MSH +z-, while + means who? (MSH +l-) and has nothing to do
with the + that marks an object as in MSH zH+. V&nds next offering again uses + in a
rhetorical question, in which who? implies nobody!
+ UH + H z +H +
U z U" - + "
Who gives joy, who sorrow? It is karma that shakes us:
The ag twists and untwists itself in the power of the wind.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
RELATIVE-CORRELATIVES
In doh" 17 we saw a relative-correlative construction using ...", equivalent to MSH
...l"-; and in doh" 30, we saw "+ ... lz, equivalent to MSH l"U+ ... U+. Such
constructions abound in V&nds couplets, and for that matter in the doh" genre generally.
In its habitual observations on human behaviour, the genre often finds itself dealing with
comparisons, oppositions, and equivalences, and these often give rise to balanced
expressions on the lines of if A, then B, or just as A is, so is B, or what a difference
between A and B!, or perhaps where A is found, B is not far away. Such binary equations
lend themselves well to relative-correlative constructions; structurally they may be split
either across the two halves of the line (hinged at the caesura) or across the two lines of
the couplet itself.
"Ul "U U U - lz
UlUlz UU+ +z + +z ++ lz
As a person feels towards something, so he declares it to be:
some call [the moon] hare-marked or nectar-maker,
some say its the blemished one.
The lunar patch that we call the man on the moon is seen variously as a hare and a
blemish, but the moon is also the source of nectar or ambrosia: so the choice of epithets
for the moon depends on the sentiments of the observer beauty (or its opposite) being in
the eye of the beholder. The construction uses two parallel sets of relative constructions:
"Ul ... lz (MSH l"UU ... UU) and "U ... U (MSH "U ... U). Another example of such
parallel sets comes in this next couplet:
"+ "z ^ UU U lz Uz
- " - "U +
Where a persons self-interest is served, that thing pleases him:
to a thief, the moonlight is not as dear as a dark night.
These constructions are very awkward to translate literally! Think of it like this:
l"U+ ^ "z UU z ( z z), z [^- " ] U+ * " z.
In the first line of this next couplet we find more relative and correlative words: "+
(MSH l"U+), l" (MSH l"-), and l (MSH -):
z" _ "+ l" l + +U
l "l +U +l U+ + H + -U
According to ones capacity, so he casts light:
how could a lamp destroy darkness like the sun?
BRAJ IN BRIEF
And here, in the second line, we find " ... l (MSH l"- ... -):
U+ Ulz + { "
" l"z " l U"
With the rising of the master, the servant rises in rank and splendour;
the deeper the water grows, [just] so much grows the lotus.
This last image has a sting in the tail: the lotus stem grows according to the depth of
the water, so that its flower floats on the surface; but when the water recedes, the lotus is
left high and dry. (The connection is made clear by the vocabulary choices: U" lotus
means pond-born, confirming its watery habitat.) As financial advisers dutifully remind
us, investments can go down as well as up; and the employees long-term security
depends on the enduring status of his master. To a poet such as V&nd, dependant on the
whimsical fortunes of a royal patron, such contexts must have seemed very real.
Notice the neat chiasmus across the caesura: / . The former is a non-finite
participle (on the rising of the master...), whereas the latter is a finite verb (the servant
rises).
Space is at a premium in the doh", and brevity is everything: so relative-correlative
constructions are not always equipped with a full set of pronouns. In the next doh" the
relative pronoun " is dropped (["] + ), while English manages well without a
correlative pronoun (those who do evil, [they] are evil):
+ -lz +
l-" + U l-" + U
They who do evil are evil, someone else is not evil;
he who trades is a trader, he who thieves is a thief.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES FROM MODERN STANDARD HINDI
Its time now to bring together a few common words and usages where Braj forms are
quite different from their MSH equivalents.
BRAJ MSH
!" #$ (conjunction only)
%& '()
%*+ '(+
%,- %*.
%+ '(+; /%0
/%& /%1$, %*+-
/%/* /%0
%2 %34
%3 %+
5/4 6&, 4
5+ 750
52 52; !8$
&+ 90
&9, &: &2 ;<
&= > (from; through)
?, @A @$
;(3, ;(2 BC
DE &%; 5A>
0E, 0) > (with; to)
, ;<
hU BI
*E F (nominative)
The Braj pronunciation of cerebral would approximate to the sound of H, leading to two
tendencies in Braj orthography. The first was to substitute H for , writing (and saying) H
for ; the second, by contrast, was to substitute for H, writing (but not saying) for H,
"l for "l.
BRAJ IN BRIEF
AND FINALLY ...
The Satsa# genre was named seven hundred because this is the number of couplets that
it contains (UU derives from Sanskrit U"l through the Prakrit UU). In fact the
number is only an approximate formula, and an individual Satsai often has more verses
than its literal seven centuries; the edition of V&nds text used here has 714 couplets. In
the tradition of composing verse tributes to an admired poet, and in gratitude to V&nd for
being such a helpful tutor, I conclude by adding a couplet of my own:
"+ lz" Hlz U U H- + z"
U lz H + + + "
He in whose heart may lie a desire to taste nectar
should draw a bucket or two from this vernacular well.
A NOTE ON DICTIONARIES
Although it is hard to find a single dictionary for reading Braj, the following are all extremely
useful. Some of them are available online under the Chicago University Digital Dictionaries
of South Asia project URLs noted accordingly.
)y"msundar D"s, ed., Hind# 'abds"gar. 11 volumes. Varanasi, N"gar# Prac"ri'# Sabh",
1929. The most comprehensive Hindi-Hindi dictionary, with many pre-modern and dialect
forms. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/dasa-hindi/
R.S. McGregor, Hindi-English Dictionary. Oxford, O.U.P., 1993. The standard Hindi-
English dictionary, and an excellent source for reliable etymologies.
J.T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English. London, 1884. Still an
essential resource after all these years. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/platts/
Premn"r"ya' #a$%an, Brajbh"(" S)rko*. 2 vols. Lucknow, Lucknow University, 1974. This
dictionary in fact ranges more widely than the poetry of the eponymous S!rd"s; and it
includes a Hindi-medium Braj grammar in the appendix. Not easy to track down, but very
useful if you can find it.
R.L. Turner, A comparative dictionary of Indo-Aryan languages (London, 1962-1966; with
three supplements, 1969-1985). The best source for reliable information about etymologies of
Indo-Aryan words. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/.
BRAJ IN BRIEF